520b Whaligoe to Lybster

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Tuesday 14th May, 2024]

It is a beautiful place to have lunch. On flat rocks, with waterfalls cascading down the slope above, and a ruined building perched in the distance.

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520a Whaligoe to Lybster

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Tuesday, 14th May, 2024]

From the bus stop on the main road, I walk along the little lane that leads to the Whaligoe Steps. Past the row of little cottages, past a number of vehicles trying to get into the tiny car park (which is full), until I reach the end of the tarmac.

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519pm Wick to Whaligoe

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Monday, 13th May, 2024]

Leaving Sarclet Haven behind, I carry on along The John o’Groats Trail. I’m tired now – this walk seems longer than I anticipated – but I must be nearly there. Another geo to walk around, fringed with pink thrift flowers. Turrie Geo, I think

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519am Wick to Sarclet

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Monday, 13th May 2024]

I cycle the long, straight road into Wick, find the side road that leads past the Trinkie swimming pool, and reach the car park at the end of the lane. Then, I realise I forgot to bring my bicycle lock! (It’s been a year since I walked the coast, and I have forgotten my usual routine.) So, with some difficulty, I drag my Scooty bike down a grassy slope, and leave it hidden from the road, lying against some rocks.

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Rehabilitation: getting back to normality…

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

Rehabilitation after cancer treatment is: “a process of regaining and refreshing old skills, learning and refining new ones to enable you to live the sort of life you want,” according to Dr Harvey. I knew what life I wanted. I WANTED MY OLD LIFE BACK.

It was going to take time. One big milestone was tucking into toast and marmalade. I hadn’t been able to eat toast – or bread of any type – for many months. It tasted scrumptious!

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Recovery: onwards and upwards…

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

I was right about my radiotherapy “wound” taking 6 weeks to heal. In fact, my ability to eat had become dramatically better at around 5 weeks. And now my fitness began to improve too.

So, I began going for longer walks. First just round the block, then round two blocks, then down the road to the nearest park. What a delight to see the cheerful yellow of crocuses in the park. At one point, I thought I would never live to see the spring. Now, spring was springing.

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Recovery: the long road back…

Posted on September 16, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

One week into the New Year, and my family came to visit – all three daughters and all three grandchildren – for a belated Christmas / early birthday celebration. I was still feeling awful – and tried not to show it. But my birthday flowers cheered up the room.

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Treatment: the downhill slide…

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

The only nice thing about being a cancer patient is that you get lots of sympathy. Over the next few weeks, as my treatment progressed, both old and new friends came to visit, I was sent cards, and I received some lovely flowers.

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A Nasty Shock: and a diagnosis…

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

After some months of increasing tiredness, loss of appetite, and difficulty eating, I finally saw a GP on the 25th July, 2023, and was referred for futher investigations at the hospital, under the two-week rule. (For those who don’t know, the two-week rule is the target set to for specialists to see patients with a strong possibility that they might have cancer.)

Even though the two-week rule applied to me, I was still pretty sure that my symptoms had a simple explanation: a combination of increasing age and possibly a hiatus hernia.

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Last Munro, and I return home

Posted on September 11, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

[Last Munro, partially climbed June 2023]

On the last day of May, 2023, I drove down to meet a group of friends in the Cairngorms. (You might think the Cairngorms are in the far north of Scotland. But the trip down south from Keiss was over 200 miles and took over 4 hours!)

This was a planned expedition with a group of around 20 of us, to support one of my old university friends, Orion, as he completed his last Munro.

For those who don’t know, the Munros are Scottish mountain peaks over 3,000 feet in height. The list was originally compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891, but has since been refined. At present, there are 282 Munros, and my friend had completed 281 of them. Quite an achievement.

It was the beginning of June. A day of intermittent sunshine. Perfect walking weather.

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